Plan B:

My husband, who shall henceforth be known as Mr. Strange (see below * for explanation), is fond of saying "If you don't like the view, change your way of looking at it". So, with that in mind, I have decided to change my view of the pea soup yarn (also known as "Petite Boucle" by Knit One Crochet Too). In the spirit of "Project Runway" I am going to set a little challenge for myself - more like a "Project Walkway". I am going to make this yarn into a garment that I will wear and love! If those designers can make dresses from recycled paper and plastic, I can come up with something for this yarn!

I am forever saying that I would like to design my own sweaters. I sort of did it once, using the Handy Book of Sweater Patterns, but I wasn't really keen on the result, and I didn't give much thought to what the yarn wanted to be (I made a very itchy fitted wool turtleneck). This time, I know several things about the yarn:

1. It is already highly textured, so there's no point in adding any frills
2. Because of the texture, I don't want to fuss around with much shaping or seaming.
3. It doesn't have a lot of drape and is a little bulky (hence fitted garments are out), but it is cozy

I'm envisioning either a boxy (but not huge) cowl neck pullover, knit from the top down (no set-in sleeves) or a retro cardigan with giant buttons. It would be the perfect sweater to wear with a white T-shirt and faded jeans. Here's the surprise: I love this yarn! It has a 'railroad track' construction with fine mohair ties suspended between nylon rails. As a result, it feels very soft and silky. I just need to use needles with a duller point because it's easy to catch those loops. The bamboo was OK, but I'm going to try some Addi's just to see how they feel. Hopefully I won't have to frog it at any point (mohair mohair mohair). In my swatch, I used a k2, p2 rib just to keep the hem from rolling, and I think I'll use that in the sweater.

Tilia is completely finished. I'm only giving this sneak preview until she (it is a girlie sweater) can be properly photographed. I'm also not going to say much about it yet, except the observation that I tend to knit sweaters that I don't really want to wear. If you are not a knitter, you are probably thinking that I am completely nuts - why spend all that time and money and then not wear it? The answer is that I really prefer to wear simple garments. My favorite winter sweaters are a plain grey turtleneck and a fine gauge brown cardigan. Do I want to knit that? No! Why? B-O-R-I-N-G! (Oh, and the fine gauge thing - if I knit with anything smaller than a size 2, I really would go insane). That's why this pea soup Project Walkway, is going to be such a challenge: designing a sweater knit entirely in stockinette stitch!

* Mr. Strange (formerly known as Tim) likes to surf the net for strange and esoteric information. When I told him how much I suffered under the control of my over-caffeinated, under-nourished and sleep-deprived brain that resulted from his absence and general watchful and loving eye, he printed out this. [Isn't he just the sweetest?] It was obvious to both of us that of the different pairs of quarks, we are charm and strange. Bet you can guess which one of us is charm.